Dominique Dunne - Acting Career

Acting Career

Dunne's first role was in the 1979 made-for-TV movie Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker. She then got small roles in episodes of popular 1980s television series such as Family, Hart to Hart and Fame. She also appeared in four episodes of the short lived TV series Breaking Away and several more made for TV movies. She was then cast in a major role in producer Steven Spielberg's Poltergeist (1982) as Dana Freeling, directed by Tobe Hooper. After Poltergeist, she appeared in the final season premiere of CHiPs and the 1982 TV movie The Shadow Riders with Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott.

Dunne had been cast as Robin Maxwell in the 1983 miniseries V and had already begun filming a short time before her death. The role was recast with actress Blair Tefkin. The only scene in which Dunne appears, according to the DVD director's commentary by series creator Kenneth Johnson, is the one in which the Maxwells and others watch the L.A. mother ship glide in on the day the Visitors first arrive. Dunne's back is all that is seen. The original miniseries is dedicated to her.